5 'guarantees' to be implemented within a week, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: The new Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah said that five guarantees in the manifesto were promised and the order for the implementation of those five guarantees was given after the first cabinet meeting. 

He said this during a press conference in Vidhana Soudha after the first cabinet meeting. "All will be in force after the next cabinet meeting which will be called within a week," he added.

The five main guarantees are 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti); Rs 2000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi); 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya); Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (Yuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Uchita Prayana).

Slamming the previous BJP government, the Chief Minister said, "Govt which was ruling before was useless, they couldn't get us the share of taxes properly. Centre has to give us Rs 5,495 crores as per the finance commission recommendation. The previous govt didn't get it. Nirmala Sitharaman is Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka and it's because of her & the PM that Karnataka suffered losses."

Siddaramaiah was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second term, along with state Congress president D K Shivakumar as Deputy Chief Minister, and eight legislators as Ministers today, exactly a week after the party swept the Assembly polls in Karnataka.
    
"We are calling the Assembly session for three days -- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we are requesting the Governor, because the new Assembly has to be constituted before May 24. Senior most MLA R V Deshpande has been requested to be the Protem Speaker, to administer oaths to MLAs," Siddaramaiah said.
    
Speaking to reporters after chairing the first Cabinet meeting today after taking oath as the Chief Minister, he said a new Assembly Speaker will be elected during the session.